Housing Benefit: Peterborough

Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much was spent on housing benefit in (a) Peterborough constituency and (b) Peterborough City Council area in each of the last 10 years.

James Plaskitt: I have been asked to reply
	Information on Housing Benefit expenditure is not available at constituency level.
	The available information is in the following table.
	
		
			  Housing benefit expenditure for Peterborough local authority district 
			   £ million 
			 1997-98 31.7 
			 1998-99 31.0 
			 1999-2000 31.2 
			 2000-01 31.6 
			 2001-02 32.0 
			 2002-03 33.3 
			 2003-04 32.7 
			 2004-05 32.3 
			 2005-06 36.7 
			 2006-07 40.0 
			  Notes: 1. Information sourced from local authority claims for housing revenue account subsidy and housing benefit subsidy. 2. Figures are rounded to the nearest 3100,000. 3. Figures prior to 2006-07 are audited, but may change in future if local authorities' audited accounts are amended after a decision or appeal. Figures for recent years are more likely to be amended than older data. 4. 2006-07 figures are initial final (pre-audited) and are subject to change. 5. From 1999-2000 onwards, housing benefit expenditure on asylum seekers was funded by the National Asylum Support Service, and is therefore excluded from the figures presented at Great Britain. However, local authority level information includes all expenditure on these benefits relating to asylum seekers, as it is not possible to isolate at this level that part which applies to asylum seekers. 6. Figures relate to what local authorities spend on claimants, and include discretionary expenditure (mainly disregards of war pensions), and overpayments except where benefit has been granted in advance (where the benefit is paid in the form of a rebate).  Source: DWP Benefit expenditure tables 
		
	
	DWP housing benefit and council tax benefit expenditure tables are available online at:
	http://www.dwp. gov.uk/asd/asd4/HBandCTB_expenditure. asp